Name
Robert Chaworth-Musters (MC)
24 Jul 1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/10/1918
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
King's Royal Rifle Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Military Cross
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANNESLEY AND FELLEY CEMETERY
276. In East part.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.
UK & Other Memorials
Bengeo School Memorial – Location t.b.c.,
War Memorial Chapel at Rugby School,
Chaworth Musters Family WW1 Memorial Tablet Annesley Notts.,
Chaworth Musters Family Additon To Gravestone Annesley Nottinghamshire,
Tythby Cum Cropwell Butler Cem Nottinghamshire,
Tythby Cum Cropwell Butler Church Tythby, Nottinghamshire
Pre War
Robert Chaworth-Musters was born in 1896 at Annesley Park, Notts., to parents John Patricius and Mary Anne. He had four sisters and six brothers, five also served in WW1 and two of them also fell.
In 1901, aged four, Robert was living at Annesley, Notts. along with his parents and some of his siblings, his father was a Landowner and Colliery Proprietor living on his own means. He was still living there in 1911, aged 14.
He was educated at Bengeo School, Danesbury, Bengeo, Hertford after which he went on to Rugby School and then Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war aged 18, he was commissioned in 12th Bn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He went to France 22 Jul 1915 and fought at Neuve Chapelle and Aubers Ridge in 1915. Recommended for the Military Cross, it was awarded to him 20 Oct 1916, after the Battle of Loos. He suffered from a number of illnesses while serving including trench fever, diphtheria and pleurisy.
By July 1917 he was out of the front line and was an instructor at 3rd Army Musketry Camp. Shortly after February 1918 he was sent back to England and was in a convalescent home, Langstone House, South Hayling, where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and it was said he had suffered with it for five years. He was then moved to Cosham Military Hospital, Southampton, but he contracted Spanish flu and then pneumonia and he died there on 10th October 1918.
His Colonel wrote on 11th October 1918, “He was a most valuable Officer, although very young, he was a born leader of men and could do anything with his Platoon, which was about the best in the Battalion. He was extraordinarily popular with Officers and men. He was later Battalion Machine Gun Officer, in which capacity he lived at Battalion Headquarters, and I saw a great deal of him. Of all the fine young Officers the Battalion lost during the War there is not one whose death caused more universal regret than that of Bob Musters.”
Additional Information
His brothers Lieut. Patricius George, and Captain Philip Mundy also fell as did their cousin 2nd Lieut. Roger Michael.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Ann Hacke, Terry & Glenis Collins
